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Thread: F.D.A. Approves 5-Day Emergency Contraceptive

  1. #1
    The Queen Zuul's avatar
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    Default F.D.A. Approves 5-Day Emergency Contraceptive

    Story here.

    WASHINGTON — Federal drug regulators on Friday approved a new form of emergency contraceptive pill that prevents pregnancies if taken as many as five days after unprotected intercourse.

    The pill, called ella, will be available by prescription only. Developed in government laboratories, it is more effective than Plan B, the morning-after pill now available over the counter to women 17 and older.
    I found this comment by a doctor quoted in the article interesting:

    “Emergency contraception has no effect on pregnancy rates or abortion rates,” said Dr. James Trussell, director of the Office of Population Research at Princeton, who has consulted without charge for ella’s maker. “Women just don’t use them enough to make an impact.”
    Well surely somebody has to be using them or else there's no profit in making more, no?

  2. #2
    The Apostabulous Inner Stickler's avatar
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    I have no idea how to do the math but I would suppose that there are enough people using it to make it profitable but not enough people using it often enough to make a large enough sample size for the US as a whole.
    I don't think so, therefore I'm probably not.

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    Curmudgeon OtakuLoki's avatar
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    Sounds good. I've talked to a couple of people who found that even the Plan B pill wasn't effective contraception, after an oopsie encounter.

    Quote Originally posted by Zuul View post
    Well surely somebody has to be using them or else there's no profit in making more, no?
    Well, one thing to consider: AIUI statistically, there are some seriously bad odd against any single conceptus surviving to implant upon the uterine wall. Some figure like 30-50% don't implant. And of those that do implant, there's another large hurdle where many a conceptus undergoes miscarriage when the regular menstruation would have happened.

    While I find all these biological facts to be amusing counterpoints to the pro-life arguments about "You can't interfere with what God has started!" I think that where they come in, here, is that it is difficult to say that use of Plan B, or this new ella, is actually going to affect the already bad statistical odds against pregnancies from any single act of intercourse. Pregnancy and abortion rates are going to be largely controlled by people who are having continual sex without protection - the fraction of pregnancies begun from a single night out begin as an very small fraction of the larger set.

    Where the disconnect seems to me is that while the statistical effect is going to be minimal, the individual effect is massive. So, those people who normally would be much more careful about protection are going to see Plan B or ella as a way to purchase mental reassurance as much as any medical or contraceptive merit. So, in effect, my argument is that the marketing (and therefore profitability) of this new treatment is going to be based on emotion, more often than any calm look at statistical odds. Which means that they can make good money selling to people who would be statistically very unlikely to have gotten pregnant anyways.

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    Part of the problem is how many people don't even know the difference between emergency contraception and medical abortion. A confusion that I think the anti-abortion activists have deliberately tried to promulgate.

    We need people to really push this. Hell, I was an awfully aware and bright teen who had the benefit of expansive sex ed and yet I had no idea such a thing existed until I heard about it from Adam and Drew. There need to be campaigns to get women to keep it in their medicine cabinet.

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    Curmudgeon OtakuLoki's avatar
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    I don't disagree that more common access would be good - but I don't think, if it's a prescribed medication, you can get the script filled on a "just in case" basis.

    OTOH, epipens require prescriptions, too, IIRC.

  6. #6
    Elephant artifex's avatar
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    Quote Originally posted by OtakuLoki View post
    Sounds good. I've talked to a couple of people who found that even the Plan B pill wasn't effective contraception, after an oopsie encounter.
    Plan B is limited to only being able to work before ovulation - if it's someone's cycle day 15, they ovulated the day before, and then the condom breaks, well, Plan B isn't going to help.

    It looks like ella is thought to work in pretty much the same way...which I think is actually a shame. I think emergency contraception that works even post-ovulation would be good.

    And as to women not using EC - the article says that many women are unaware that they are at risk for unintended pregnancy. So...maybe we can, for once, educate and empower women? The Bush years were not exactly awesome for that, but let's move past those.

  7. #7
    Curmudgeon OtakuLoki's avatar
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    Quote Originally posted by artifex View post
    And as to women not using EC - the article says that many women are unaware that they are at risk for unintended pregnancy. So...maybe we can, for once, educate and empower women?
    As someone who would really love to see elective abortion rates drop, I agree with this 100%: Full and complete sex ed should be a no brainer. Trying to control people through fear or ignorance is quite simply beneath any society that claims to care about personal freedoms.

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    Plan B is "behind the counter", actually, not prescription. It's like Sudafed -- you have to buy it from the pharmacy counter but no prescription is needed.

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    Elen síla lumenn' omentielvo What Exit?'s avatar
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    This is a very good thing but as far as why pro-lifers being against this and lumping it with abortion. Their fight/position is at heart to draw the line after coitus. They don't really care beyond that in general.

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    The Queen Zuul's avatar
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    Quote Originally posted by What Exit? View post
    This is a very good thing but as far as why pro-lifers being against this and lumping it with abortion. Their fight/position is at heart to draw the line after coitus. They don't really care beyond that in general.
    Well, the article stated that Plan B isn't a big issue in the pro-life/pro-choice struggle and I can see why, since all it does is prevent ovulation. There is no "life" to protect because if it works then sperm and egg never meet.

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    Quote Originally posted by Zuul View post
    Well, the article stated that Plan B isn't a big issue in the pro-life/pro-choice struggle and I can see why, since all it does is prevent ovulation. There is no "life" to protect because if it works then sperm and egg never meet.
    Right to Life has taken an official position against both emergency contraception and regular birth control, citing a theoretical risk (one that has never, ever been proven to exist) that a fertilized ovum could be killed by hormonal contraception.

    Stuff like that makes it harder to accept the idea that they're just interested in saving the kiddies.

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    Women should take care of their health more than anything else. It is good to join some extra activities like a yoga or an aerobic class, to keep you fit and active
    [URL="http ://www. womenhealthzone .com"]womens health[/ URL]
    Last edited by Zuul; 21 Mar 2011 at 09:14 PM. Reason: Broke link.

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    Elen síla lumenn' omentielvo What Exit?'s avatar
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    Weird Bot, are these new?

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    The Queen Zuul's avatar
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    Looks like that one's been sliding under the radar for a bit. I hadn't noticed it until it zombified this thread, at least.

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    Oliphaunt The Original An Gadaí's avatar
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    I was complaining about it in chate a couple of times.

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    Wanna cuddle? RabbitMage's avatar
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    Quote Originally posted by The Original An Gadaí View post
    I was complaining about it in chate a couple of times.
    Try complaining about it in a PM to a mod, it might get things fixed faster. ;-)

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    The Queen Zuul's avatar
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    If you see any more pop up like that, report the posts. Complaining in chat doesn't get 'em banned.

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    Elen síla lumenn' omentielvo What Exit?'s avatar
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    Quote Originally posted by Zuul View post
    Looks like that one's been sliding under the radar for a bit. I hadn't noticed it until it zombified this thread, at least.
    I never saw this type of spambot until recently. Are they new or am I just oblivious?

  19. #19
    The Queen Zuul's avatar
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    Quote Originally posted by What Exit? View post
    Quote Originally posted by Zuul View post
    Looks like that one's been sliding under the radar for a bit. I hadn't noticed it until it zombified this thread, at least.
    I never saw this type of spambot until recently. Are they new or am I just oblivious?
    I noticed this sort a few months back, but our filters have been keeping most spam bots out of this board. I'm not sure how long they've been around.

  20. #20
    Oliphaunt The Original An Gadaí's avatar
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    Quote Originally posted by RabbitMage View post
    Quote Originally posted by The Original An Gadaí View post
    I was complaining about it in chate a couple of times.
    Try complaining about it in a PM to a mod, it might get things fixed faster. ;-)
    Yeah maybe, place is so frenetic my comments might have passed unnoticed.

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